The Freedom's Lullaby
by LadyBender
Summary: A group of reformers led by Wernstrom send back Leela and the mutants in the sewers, and now Fry and the crew must find an other way to free them.
1. Chapter 1

Everything was normal that day. Deliveries have been made, good news have been received, and now Fry sank into his chair from boredom during another one of Hermes meeting's. His mind always wanders during them: passing from the most important questions of existence to 'who knows where I left my sock'. But most of the time his drifting mind landed on Leela. She was sitting next to him and she was reading something in a magazine. They have been together for a while but, sometimes, he kept staring at her like he was still fighting to get to a date with her: so perfect and far away.

"Fry. Fry! FRY! " "Hermes yelled from behind the hologram that opened from the center of the table, waking up Fry from his daydream. "I'm trying to have a meeting on the increasing consumption of toothpaste in this office, can you please fall asleep later."

But after he rebuked Fry realized that no one else (between naps, magazines and cigars) was paying attention to him.

"Okay, I get it. The meeting is over. "He said picking up his papers and shutting off the hologram.

They didn't need to be told twice. A few moments later they were all in the TV room. Bender took a fraction of a second to sink into the sofa opening a beer and turning on the TV, and from there they hear Morbo's powerful voice, sitting in a brown armchair on the set of Tea with Titans.

_"And now we will talk with Professor Ogden Wernstrom to learn more about his group of reformists, called 'The Keepers'. So professor what's the works of your group? "_

_"Is very simple." _Wernstrom said, with a proud voice and defiant expression, sitting on another chair placed in front of Morbo _"We want to send all the mutants back to the sewers, where they came from."_

Even if everyone on the coach gasped heavily Bender's looks remain impassive.

"Hey, Leela." He said "a guy on tv is talking about your people."

"What?" shouted Leela get closer to the tv.

_"The law that stipulates the equality of the mutants was too hasty"_ continued Wernstrom _"_ _since we have neglected the safety, the health, and the supremacy that humans have and must maintain. And I also want to say that my statements are based on numerous studies, which state that the mutants actually transmit serious diseases to contact with humans. I personally created the group of the keepers, to destroy that law and send all the filthy mutant back to the sewer. Forever."_

There was silence. Fry was still and looked bleached white. Leela stared into space. She nearly strangled the magazine that she carried with one hand. The other hand was holding Fry's hand, without her even noticing. The intense silence lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to make Leela feel fear and panic.

"Came on, guys." Amy said with a trembling voice and a fake smile "it is obvious that they can't do such a thing, don't even consider it possible. And then, it is an absurd statement that the mutants transmit diseases. If it was true, we would be already dead for years. "

Fry just nod slightly. It was a little pale, but at least now he moved.

"Guys, I want to organize a protest against the keepers. Tomorrow we'll march in the streets of the town"

Leela wasn't surprised that her statement caused havoc to the crew. In less than three days, the keepers had gained millions of followers, and they were more determined than ever to bring all the mutants back the sewers permanently. Those were terrible days for all of them. They were taking away the freedom from the mutants' hands, and so far all tries to protect their rights were vain.

That protest was like the last hope of Leela and of her people (since all will vote for abolish the law the following day) but she was ready to try, even if nobody would support her. Fry would. Except now he insisted more on leaving the city. But that isn't a good idea. Surely they would find them before they could even reach the moon, and she would still end up in the sewers. The only difference was that it would involve Fry, too. Maybe they would accuse him of having helped a mutant to escape, or something like that. She couldn't allow him to go through that. No. The best thing was to deal with them, and lose.

That night Fry's opinion didn't change, he still wanted to leave Earth and run away as faster as they could without looking back. The problem was that Leela didn't change her mind either.

"Fry, please. We can't leave." She said gently, sitting on Fry's couch in Robot Arms Apartments "Did you see how they are. They will look for us until the edge of the universe."

" And then we will move to the other edge." Countered Fry, who instead paced back and forth unable to sit still.

Leela smiled a little on Fry's affirmation, but she kept her eye down. Focused on the various papers scattered across the coffee table. All bumps of speeches that she wanted to do once the protest get to the town hall, unless, of course, she will be thrown through a manhole before.

"I'm afraid too…" she said, leaving her smile disappear "...But this is the best solution. If I really have to end up there I want to say I tried to fight for my freedom, without running away... and then this way I won't put you in danger."

Fry was standing before her: motionless, defeated. "However, I'll bring you out from there... I promise."

Leela tried to ignore that last sentence. It hurt to think of being away from him. But she tried to collect all the energy she had for the last sentence of the evening, trying to look natural saying it, too.

"If this is our last night together, I don't want to waste it. Do you?"

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, and it seemed as if she had forgotten everything that has happened.

She wondered why she didn't do that before.


	2. Chapter 2

Fry fidgeted nervously in bed. Staring a little at Leela, a little at the ceiling, a little through the window. From there he saw that the sky was getting lighter and faded to yellow on the horizon, which led him to look at the digital clock on the bedside table: 5:54 a.m.

He couldn't remember when the last time was that he saw the sunrise. Maybe when his father woke him up in the middle of the night for a military exercise, or when his old video games made him stay awake all night, or when Bender messed around in his room, without worrying of the time. But now he was definitely awake for other reasons.

He sat up and leaned back against the headboard of the bed, keeping his eyes fixed on the sky which was now becoming red, surrounded by a thousand buildings. It was beautiful, slow, and quiet. Practically everything he needed to keep him company while he was thinking of the fate that has fallen over Leela.

He had studied thousands of theories, one more absurd and inconclusive than the other. Yet, he felt like if there was still something he hadn't thought of, and maybe it could work.

_'After all, she is not like the other mutants' _he thought _'she grew up in an orphanage on the surface. And she doesn't look like one of them so much, you'd never know she's a mutant seeing her. What if... '_

_Driiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin_

The sound of the alarm startled Fry, who bangs his head on the wall behind him.

Leela's woke up a short while later. A few minutes later, she was already dressed and ready. But she had not paid much heed to Fry, who was trying to explain his new idea.

"Leela, I don't think you look too much like a mutant. So maybe if the protest fails you won't be taken" he explained running behind her. She was checking her notes, going from room to room to collect all of them. "If you attend in the protest standing in the crowd, the keepers won't notice you. And if in the end, something goes wrong we can still escape."

"I don't know, it seems risky. What if they already know who I am?" she said still running all over the house.

"Impossible. I mean, how could they? And you shouldn't worry about anything because I can handel it, maybe with your parents." He said, trying to grab her arms to keep her still "Please. I know this will not change the outcome, but... I mean... maybe it will change yours."

She didn't know what to say. She thought maybe she could do it for him, to make him feel better. She didn't like the idea of staying behind the scenes, leaving the city ,then never talked about again. But she had to admit it, Fry's idea, maybe in other circumstances, might have worked.

"O-okay. I'll do it."

* * *

A few hours later they were in front of the Planet Express with all the participants in the protest. But the problem was that they were fewer than they expected. There must have been 20, 30 mutants at most. They would definitely get nothing that way, except whistles and shouts of derision. But Leela wanted to proceed anyway.

The march of the twenty mutants and the Planet Express crew (which represented the only humans in the parade) was working quite well, with Fry, Munda and Morris on his head waving banners and shouting through a megaphone: "Mutants' freedom. Mutants' freedom."

But they didn't last long. Given that a little later the police that the keepers, who were wearing a surgical mask and a white suit with a big red X on it, have surrounded the mutants.

But they weren't attacking them, they were accompanying them. But soon realized that they had no way out. Just keep walking. The strange thing was that the keepers weren't diverting them, they followed the road to the town hall.

They came to town hall in silence like it was a funeral parade. At that point, Fry had to climb the marble staircase and read the speech that Leela had prepared. But his stage was already occupied.

"Well, well, well. What we have here? The Planet Express crew. " He said in a tone scathing and venomous looking Fry and his coworkers just behind him. "Nice of you to join the resistance. I hope that my friends have treated you well." A mockery guffaw have started from the keepers, who, from the perspective of Fry, were tripled than before.

"So, is you that drive this useless protest?" he asked looking Fry.

Fry stayed still, while another mockery laughter echoed around him.

"And I guess I know the reason why you do it." He paused, looking for someone in the crowd. "So, where's her? Where is Leela?"

Fry's heart skip a beat. But before he could do or say anything, Leela joined him making her way through the crowd. Fry turned around to look at her: she was quite angry, but he couldn't say exactly to who. After looking at Wernstrom, she turned to Fry, showing him the same look.

He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He could just shook his head and whisper "no..."

"Well, I would say that, now that Leela is blown out, it's the time of the special announcement. Mr. Mayor, to you the honor." Wernstrom said, stepping aside to let the mayor Poopenmeyer pass.

"To be short," began the mayor "given that the reform is based on unequivocal scientific facts, I decided to skip the vote and proceed directly with the expulsion. So long!"

"NOOO" Fry cried, who had regained his voice again, clutching Leela close.

But a second after a couple of men were on them, grabbing Leela by the arms, separating her from Fry, who was pushed away. And when he tried to reach them to release her, he was hit hard in the head and he also felt a sharp pain in my stomach, as if someone had kicked it. He fell to the ground.

"FRY" Leela screamed trying to unseat the taking. But she only managed to free one arm, which dangled forward. "FRY. FRY" but he didn't answer and she couldn't even see him anymore.

Two more men came to block her, preventing the view of the mutants that were running in panic. They dragged her forcefully in the direction of their choice, and when Leela was able to turn her head around she saw realized her fear.

An open manhole a few feet from them was their destination.

"NO. NOOO" she cried trying to escape, but this time she couldn't even move a muscle and a few moments later she was in free fall in a dark, cold and familiar place.

* * *

"Fry. Fry, wake up."

A cold, metallic hand was shaking Fry's shoulder, making him realize that his face was in contact with something cold and hard. He opened his eyes and blinked. His head throbbed and ached. He realized that he was lying face down on the asphalt.

He turned, still lying down. Next to Bender, that was still shaking him, there were the professor, Amy, Hermes and Zoidberg. All with worried look.

"Are you okay?" Amy said kneeled to help him pull himself up.

Fry did not answer. He sat up and felt his head burning, but he ignore it, and focused his attention on a manhole a few feet away from him: it was covered by some kind of grey asphalt, that seemed quite durable too.

His stomach suddenly dropped, his head began to hurt again and he probably became very pale because Amy and Hermes had tried to support him when he tried to stand.

He knew what that meant, but he was afraid to ask. So he approached unsteadily near the manhole. The dark gray substance looked like cement but surely it would have been infinitely strong than that.

A drop of blood fell right on the gray asphalt, and it was there that he realized the why his head hurt so much. He had a wound above the eye and a lot of blood ran on the face, but he ignored that once again. Something fell on the manhole cover right next to the blood, but this time it was a tear.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks Cartoonlover27, Mel and Reclusivefan :)**

* * *

Leela pulled her head out of the water. The awful taste of rotten eggs and old socks made her stomach turn. Her eye hadn't habituated to the darkness yet. The only light sources were the lake and open manholes on top of her which lets a cone of sunlight and, unfortunately, other mutants that were pushed down with screams that made Leela shiver.

She tried to swim to reach the wooden stilts close to her. But it was more complicated than expected, since all the mutants in the lake continued to push and also cling to her to try to stay afloat.

Once she reached the pier and pulled herself up, she tried to look for her parents. She walked for a bit in the crowded platforms, when she saw them. They were swimming towards the stilts a few feet away from where she was. Leela ran up to them and bent back toward the lake to reach out them.

"Mum . Dad. Are you okay?"

"Yes, sweetheart. And you?" Munda said as she made as she get out of the lake.

"Yeah" Leela said out of breath.

Her gaze now flowed from their parents to the manholes above her. They were many and all open for a long distance on which entered a powerful light that shone in the underground's darkness, and when Leela loses her gaze to the most distant it seemed almost to look at a saddled sky. But the magic ended. Just as they were all open at the same time they all closed almost simultaneously with dry noises, leaving her in view of a hypothetical starless sky, which brought her back to reality.

"Mom, dad, have you seen Fry?" she said in one breath "A Keeper hit him with a kind of knife and when I turned around I didn't see him anymore."

"No I'm sorry, sweetie. But... But maybe someone else has seen him." She added quickly as she noticed Leela's shocked look.

She wasted no time. The place was crowded and it was difficult for someone to listen to for more than 3 seconds, and when they did usually they said "get lost", "I don't care" or "this is not the right time to worry about a stupid human". But after hundreds of attempts an older man with several noses scattered across his face and a greenish color gave her a real answer.

"Yes, I think it's the guy I bumped in an attempt to escape," he said, trying to dry his wet jacket "I must have hit him in the stomach, poor guy. I thought he was dead. "

Leela let out a gasp.

"Oh, no. Do not worry, before they captured me I had a few seconds to see if he was all right and I saw that he breathed, then a robot came and dragged him away. And then they took me."

Leela could not avoid being happy after that story. Fry was alive. He was hurt but he wasn't dead. and after 15 minutes of hell she could finally free her mind from that awful thought.

"Oh, thank you. Thank you so much."

She walked away quickly from the man, although he seemed like as he was going to tell her something else. She tried to look for her parents again to give them the great news. She moved instinctively towards Turanga's house. And, infact, she found them both in the living room. Morris was sitting on the couch looking at his feet and Munda was sitting in front of the window holding a couple of photo frames, both were distraught.

She gave them the news but their mood didn't change at all, they simply say "That's great" with a mournful tone, although Munda smiled. She knew what the situation was but it was bad enough to have to spend the rest of his life in that hole, if she also had to face the reality that Fry had died it would have been unbearable.

But her enthusiasm soon faded, when she remember herself that even if Fry was alive she could not see him again. Neither he nor anyone else.

Her eye began to be hit by a wave of tears that she couldn't stop. She sat down on the sofa next to her father and buried her face in her hands, sobbing.

* * *

Before being dragged away by force from his colleagues, Fry was able to see what they were doing to some manholes that weren't covered by concrete, yet. They were putting some kind of warning which was nailed to the ground. He also heard Wernstrom talk to the mayor (rather loudly).

"There. This time the mutants won't have any type of communication with the surface. We put sensors and detectors in all Manhattan's sewers. They are now completely isolated."

The crew went back at Planet Express. No one dared to say a word, especially to Fry, who was the quietest of all. He didn't protest even when Zoidberg proposed to cure the forehead. In fact, he didn't even let out sounds of pain, in spite of the doctor was going to amputate his ear by mistake.

After the treatment he got up and walked to the professor's lab.

"Professor, where's Wernstrom's lab?" he asked before he came close to him.

"Wha-?"

"Wernstrom has made some mistakes in his research, I'm sure. We just have to sneak in his laboratory and steal his research."

"Well, I'm afraid it won't be so simple. You see, ever since he became 'Mr. Big-shot' he has transferred his laboratory in a super controlled area."

He opened a hologram that showed what looked like a small military base painted in white.

"They'll blow your head off before you can approach the entrance." Concluded the professor.

Fry examined the hologram. It seemed difficult to storm. But it sure couldn't stop him from doing something to help Leela.

"Prr. I bet Bender can get us in there." He said with a verse of challenge. "But you have to help me to find the right research. You do not want to have a chance to humiliate Wernstrom?"

"Wernstrom!" He said angrily "Okay, I'm in."

The new plan did calm Fry, even though the image of Leela trapped or endangered in the sewers hurt him. He couldn't stop thinking about her and about the fact that it was his fault: he had changed her plan, he delivered her directly into the hands of the enemy, and he wasn't able to save her. It blaming him to death.


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks black-cat-9288, Sunrise in Silver, trghlj and cartoonlover27 for the follow. Sorry for the long break, but I had to rewrite this chapter, like, three times. Anyway hope you like it.

* * *

"I hope you will let me bend something. The consequences will be very serious, if you took me here for nothing." Bender said while climbing over the iron gate that surrounded the laboratory.

They had went all around the fence to find a point that wasn't under surveillance. But they hadn't created a hole to get in, 'cause they didn't want to leave traces behind. They approach quietly, walked to the building squatting in the mud, until they saw the grate of the air duct behind a small bush.

"Oh, yeah." Whispered Bender happily, bending the railing.

The duct was narrow, and cold, and they crawled in it for what seemed like an eternity to Fry. They turned to the right and left in total darkness following the instructions of the professor, who was in the lead.

He was very relieved to see that she seemed to know where to go.

"Ok. There we are." Said the professor suddenly, stopping at a random point of the duct "Bender, bend us a way out."

"With pleasure."

The robot turned to the side and grabbed the lower part of the metal wall, then with a loud groan rolled up the slab to the top, like a can of cat food, and scrambled out. Fry knew it wasn't the ideal thing to do when you are trying not to attract attention, but he was too glad to get out of the tube that he didn't complain.

They arrived in what seemed to be the opposite of a lab, or any sort of a laboratory like Professor Farnsworth's: there were no strange machinery, computers, or vials with different colored liquid inside. There was only a desk and a variety of grey archives arranged along a wall.

"It cannot be the right room. This looks like an office." Fry whispered.

But in seeking the approval of the professor he noticed that he was already looking in the desk, opening the drawers one by one. He seemed to have in mind what he wanted, because he abandoned it almost immediately and headed to one of the archives.

Fry didn't understand why they were there, until he noticed the nameplate on the desk: 'Ogden Wernstrom'.

The minutes passed while the professor examined one archive after another. Now even Bender showed signs of boredom, after filling his chest compartment of knick knacks and awards.

And after he opened all the archives and had piled several files on the desk, the Professor looked at Fry and Bender.

"Nothing," he whispered. "I found all of his projects. All his researches. Even the ones he did when he was a student of mine at the university. But there's nothing about mutants. I'm sorry, Fry. "

"But ... but ..." mumble Fry "But maybe he put them in a safer place ... like a safe, or a theca, or the stomach of a crocodile... anything"

He looked desperate the Professor, who gave him a last look sorry and then he turned to climb into the hole of the air duct, followed by Bender. But Fry stood there for a moment. He wanted it to be all a nightmare. He wanted Leela was there. He wanted to take his place.

He climbed awkwardly into the hole from where the Professor and Bender have disappeared, with his head burning. Praying that Leela was fine and hoping to be able to think of something else to free her.

* * *

"We did it once, why can't we remake it again?"

"Because now they will kill us before we're gonna reach a manhole!" shouted a gruff three-legs mutant, slamming the door on Leela's face.

She had spent the last week knocking on every home in the sewer to gather volunteers for a second rebellion. But the only people who, until then, had agreed with her parents and Leela suspected that they had done so only for not contradict her.

It was getting late now, though failing to see the sun could not say for sure. She decided, however, to skip the last three houses in front of her and go home for dinner.

In addition to not contradict Leela, she had noticed that her parents continued to avoid any argument which would involve the surface, even only minimally. But Morris was not very good at that game.

"Damn! this soup has the same taste of that hotdog on the 52nd street and it looks like.." he fell silent as soon as he saw the angry look of Munda across the table, fortunately neither of them had noticed the small smile of Leela.

She knew they did that for her own good, but she would have preferred that they didn't, since it didn't make her feel better at all. She missed New New York. And she missed going into space, being at Planet Express, and Fry. Fry missed her more than her share authoritarian wanted to admit. And not talking about it wasn't the same of not thinking about it. And now she was thinking about it, and she couldn't keep it longer.

"Don't you miss the surface?" Leela asked, after having swallowed a spoonful of soup particularly disgusting.

"B-but of course we miss it, sweetheart." Munda said after a pause in which dropped the spoon.

"I don't think you miss it in the right way. In short, it seems almost indifferent to you. Are you really just doing it for me?"

"Oh, no, no, no. How can you think about something like this?" But Munda's voice was more acute than the usual, and she give some serious look at her husband.

"Look, dear." she said at last, grabbing Leela's hand "Maybe we, like all the other mutants, have accepted more easily not to have access to the surface. After all, this had been our home for all this time."

'Perhaps it's true, none of them belonged to the surface as I was.' Leela thought bitterly 'But perhaps I don't belong to the sewers like they do.'

She pulled her hand away from her mother's tentacles and returned silently to eat. As soon as she finished, she tried to go to her room but Morris stopped her, checked that Munda was distracted to clear the table and whispered "Follow me".

Leela followed him upstairs and he headed for the door next to his room, where she noticed it had never been entered. He open it and turned on the light bulb hanging from the ceiling. The room reminded her of the entrance of Fry and Bender's apartment, in fact it was not much bigger than that. But before she could ask why they were there Morris took out a box: on it was written 'Turanga Leela'.

"We kept all the stuff that we have collected about you when you were in the surface" he explained, handing her the box, "Your mother didn't want to give it to you, but I think it can help in your revolution. And ,also," he mumbled playing with his hands "that, you are doing the right thing."


End file.
